As last year it was terribly hot, this year we though to escape of it. Thus, we decided to spent our vacations in Scotland. We knew that it was a goog destination, both for birding, and for history and landscapes. We also knew that august was not the best time to do birding, as seabirds probably were not in their nesting colonies. In fact, this was the case, with the exception of Bass Rock. Despite that, we decided to try with Scotland, and although colonies were empty, birds were in the sea around. Obviously, all accompanied with a continuous rain.

We arrived to Edinburgh, were we spent a couple of days, visiting the city. Both herring and lesser black-backed gulls were abundant in all the city, as other species in the gardens, as those in the Holyroodhouse Palace.

After our visit to Edinburgh, we moved to the south, where, in addition to the important colony of northern gannets at Bass Rock and the Aberlady marshes, there is plenty of monuments, both castles and abbeys.

After those visits, we moved to a Bed and Breakfast in Peebles. An excursion to Tweed river is interesing (grey heron, rook, grey wagtail, rabbits). Furthermore, this was our departing point to visit several castles and abbeys.

From Peebles, we moved to Pitlochry, to reach, thereafter, the Highlands. In the way, we visited Vane Farm, a reserve of the Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Loch Leven. Building works at Vane Farm made that birds were not there. However, goose and ducks were at Loch Leven.

Our first visit inside the Cairngorms National Park was to Spittal of Glenmuick. We knew that it was easy to find both red and fallow deers, and grouses. We saw both deer species, but not the grouses. However, there was a red-throated diver, and passerines at the feeders.

In Loch Garten there is a pandion pair nesting. In addition, this is a good spot to see scotish crossbill, although we did not see any. More passerines at the feeders, and obviously, more rain. I recommend to arrive to Loch Mallachie.

We took the train to the Cairng Gorm. There there are guided tours, but the weather was so bad (visibility 5 m, hard winds, etc) that we could not see anything. When we came bakc, we saw some caribous.

After sleeping in Inverness, we visited Chanonry Point, where it is easy to see dolphins. Although we were not lucky, in part due to rain, we saw great black-backed gulls, parasitic jaeger, and herring gulls.

More productive regarding bird species than Skye. Tobermory, the capital merits also a short visit. Whalewathing trips depart from here. We took one, thus we had few time remaining to visit other places in the island.

Coming back to Edinburgh, after leaving the ship in Oban, we did a short stay at the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. Few species, with the exception of seabirds. Lots of oytercatcher, gulls and a guillemot near to our Bed and Breakfast.